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                 People's Tribune (Online Edition)
                 Vol. 20 No. 2 / January 11, 1993

                 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
                        Email: [e-mail]

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Christmas Day fire kills 3 trapped in power plant

STOP THE "SILENT SLAUGHTER"!

It happened in Newark, New Jersey, but it could have happened
anywhere. It happened on Christmas Day, but it goes on every day
in America: the silent slaughter of workers on the job that has
claimed two million lives in the last 20 years.

Joseph Eley, 41, Michael McLoughlian, 25, and Andy Motichka, 25,
desperately tried to break the steel-wire reinforced windows of
the O'Brian Newark-Cogenerating Plant, but failed. The three
perished December 25 when fire and deadly smoke raced through the
fuel-oil burning facility.

Firefighters had to break down locked metal doors to reach the
men, and could have gotten there sooner had not hard times in
Newark forced the shift-closing of the nearest fire station.

Must 1993 continue the destruction of the lives and health of
those forced to work in unsafe, toxic (but highly profitable!!)
conditions? We say, NO!

For more, see editorial, story 1.

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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 20 No. 2 / January 11, 1993
To see the article, type a period (dot) followed by the number.

Editorial
 1. THREE WORKERS IN NEWARK WHO DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE

News
 2. JUSTICE RECEIVES ANOTHER MAJOR BLOW!
 3. FREE THE MAHONE ONE!
 4. BUSH PARDONS IRAN-CONTRA CROOKS; POOR PEOPLE ROT IN PRISON
 5. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR. WATSON DEDUCE: POLICE STATE IN U.S.A.
 6. THE TWO FACES OF "WHITE COLLAR CRIME"

Culture
 7. POEM I: I DON'T CRY ALONE ANYMORE
 8. POEM II: FREE FROM THE WELFARE CUTS

Columns and features
 9. DEADLY FORCE: BARRICADING OUR STREETS, (AND OUR RIGHTS)
10. CALL TO FORM ORGANIZING COMMITTEES...

11. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE


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1. EDITORIAL: THREE WORKERS IN NEWARK WHO DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE

Christmas morning, 1992, inside the O'Brian Newark-Cogenerating
Plant in Newark, New Jersey. There were only three workers inside
that building, working on a family holiday that would be their
last. They were Joseph Eley, 41; Michael McLoughlian and Andy
Motichka, both 25.

Before long they were fighting for fresh air as thick, smoky
fumes, believed to be from burning fuel oil, filled their lungs
and their bloodstreams. The plant, owned by the John Brown Co.,
burns fuel oil and natural gas to produce energy for local
businesses and Jersey Central Power and Light.

On the one day the plant's windows needed breaking, they wouldn't
because they were wire-reinforced.

"They obviously tried breaking them with chairs, and you can see
the pockmarks on the glass," said Newark fire department spokesman
Larry Krieger, who also said that firefighters on the outside
needed sledgehammers to open the same windows.

Krieger said "There's no direct exit that you could just open a
door and get outside."

That could have been the end of the story, but for a couple of
additional details. According to the Associated Press: "Offices of
the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were
closed Christmas Day, and a call to an OSHA answering service was
not immediately returned."

And: "David Giordano, vice president of the Newark Firemen's
Union, said that firefighters could have arrived at least five
minutes earlier if the nearest station had not been closed during
that shift as part of a rotation of cost cutting measures."

Something similar happened in 1991 at the Imperial Foods chicken
processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. There, 25 hard-
working, low-paid employees perished in a flash fire because the
owner had locked the fire escape doors. Nationwide outrage over
this corporate atrocity led to the conviction of the chicken plant
owner and his associates.

But these disgraces are not uncommon in a land where workers'
safety has been trampled by business greed. They are happening at
a time when conditions for workers in New Jersey are being pushed
down to the level of those in North Carolina.

An investigation of this fire and the conditions preceding the
fire is in order. Those responsible for the safety of those
workers should be brought to account. Those guilty of criminal
negligence should be prosecuted and punished.


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2. JUSTICE RECEIVES ANOTHER MAJOR BLOW!

Border Patrol agent acquitted of all charges!

[From the Tribuno del Pueblo,  sister paper to the People's
Tribune]

TUCSON, Arizona -- Last April the nation expressed its shock and
outrage at the verdict in the Rodney King case -- a case where the
guilt of the police involved was witnessed by millions of people.

Now once again, the judicial system shows us its true face by
dropping all charges against INS patrolman Michael Elmer who
brutally shot Dario Miranda Valenzuela in the back as he crossed
the border and then attempted to hide his body. Elmer's own
partner, who was a witness to the shooting, was threatened by
Elmer not to reveal what had happened.

The jury in the federal District Court in Tucson made its decision
based on the defense strategy of promoting prejudice and fear --
the same as in the King case. But instead of painting the image of
the "black drug dealer," they whipped up hatred of the "illegal
drug dealer" to allow for the murder of a man who had committed no
other crime than to fight for his survival.

The law-enforcement agencies are becoming more powerful and
violent. Each time an obviously unjust court decision is permitted
they are given the green light to utilize brute force against the
people.

In Los Angeles, after the rebellion in April, the police
department promised to never again allow the people of Los Angeles
to take to the streets in protest. On December 14, they proved
their commitment, assaulting, beating and arresting dozens of
people who were simply organizing and distributing flyers.

In Detroit, the police who beat to death Malice Green have still
not spent a day in jail or paid a nickel in bonds.

This economic system can no longer provide jobs for a growing
number of people. Under these circumstances, the government
clearly plans to control us by using violence and oppression. In
defense of our rights, in defense of our very lives we have to
raise our voices in protest. The decision in the Elmer case cannot
be accepted. We need protests, letters, wide mobilization. We will
not allow the justice system to sanction the murder of anyone
simply for crossing the border!

Address letters of protest to: William Barr, Department of
Justice, 10th Street & Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20530.

For more information, contact the CRLA Foundation: Nancy Martinez
[phone] or [phone] in Fresno,  California.


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3. FREE THE MAHONE ONE!

LOS ANGELES -- On February 20, 1993, Billy Cerveny, revolutionary,
poet, and leader of the Auranti Indigenous People's Movement
(AIPM) will begin his latest battle for justice. This time,
however, his life hangs in the balance. Cerveny, 31, is charged
with homicide in the stabbing death of a pesticide manufacturer in
the small town of Mahone, West Virginia. If convicted, he could
face execution. As his trial looms closer, more and more citizens
have become convinced that Cerveny is merely a scapegoat in a
McCarthyite purge aimed at those who challenge the existing power
structure.

Cerveny's battles with capitalist inequities began almost 20 years
ago, as a boy growing up near Fairbanks, Alaska. His tribe, the
Aurantis, had been decimated by the encroachment of the white man
and his hunt for profits. By the mid-1980s, only a small number of
Aurantis survived, and their lives and culture were threatened by
big business and its lust for the bottom line. In 1984, Billy
started AIPM, a community group committed to the return of native
lands and fair restitution for all that has been taken by force
from the Auranti people. The group believes that justice will not
be done until society itself is reordered. Cerveny says, "the
means of production must be in the hands of the people. We will
not rest until there are no slaves or slave-drivers, but only
workers, united."

Incarcerated several times on false charges of sexual assault and
disorderly conduct for his efforts on behalf of his people,
Cerveny remains unbroken. "I am not afraid, for I know my struggle
will not die with me."

Unfortunately, Cerveny may now have reason to fear. He cannot
afford to pay his astronomically high bond, and so remains
incarcerated, despite a worsening liver condition. Comrades across
the country have lent support to his struggle for justice, but so
far it has not been enough.

Please help free this indigenous hero. Please send letters of
support to: The Free the Mahone One Campaign; 133 West Channel
Road; Santa Monica, California 90402.

No contributions will be accepted, but copies of Cerveny's
collection of poems, _Blood of the Wolf Resistance_, will be sent
to all those who write to express their solidarity.


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4. BUSH PARDONS IRAN-CONTRA CROOKS WHILE POOR PEOPLE ROT IN PRISON

They lied to Congress. They committed perjury and, finally, they
were indicted for their part in covering up the Iran-Contra
scandal.

But on Christmas Eve, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
and five others were given full pardons by President Bush, whose
own role in the arms-for-hostages deal could have been exposed had
his pals stood trial.

While these criminal members of the ruling class will never see
the inside of a jail cell, thousands of poor people remain behind
bars for committing "crimes" of survival, i.e.., taking food,
shoplifting clothes, and working side jobs while on welfare. Take
Johnell Warren, who is serving 25 years in the Florida State
Penitentiary for taking two cuts of meat from a supermarket.
Nobody pardoned him. Or the thousands doing time for being hooked
on drugs that the Iran-Contra crooks allowed into this country in
the first place.

In fact, Iran-Contra revealed that behind the legally-elected
government there exists an illegal shadow-government of military
officers (Col. Oliver North, Adm. Poindexter, etc.), arms
merchants, international drug traffickers (the proceeds of arms
sales to Iran went to aid the Nicaraguan Contras who dealt drugs),
and a host of CIA employees and ex-employees. More than just
protecting himself and his pals, Bush's main motive in granting
the pardons is to hide this clique from further public view. Bush
may be gone, but his gang is not.

Once again, the real criminals walk while the prisons fill up with
the victims of poverty. All of the Iran-Contra conspirators should
do time! It is the people rotting behind bars just for trying to
survive who should be set free!


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5. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR. WATSON DEDUCE: POLICE STATE IN U.S.A.

Dr. Watson: After reading Friday's paper, December 18, 1992, about
the conviction of the 2 out of 3 police officers who took part in
the conspiracy to harass and beat street people, Holmes, I have
come to the conclusion that America has turned into Hitler's
Germany. Especially where I read that the police officers were
commanded on-the-job to prowl Gastonia [North Carolina] by night
in search of street people, using CB radios when they found one,
beating them and dousing them with coffee or hot oil or pee. We
can only assume, Holmes, that it was all 'cooked up' at the police
station by the chief of police and all the other police officers
before they set off on their night shift.

Sherlock Holmes: I must say, Dear Watson, we've got Hitler's
Germany on our hands here. It looks like the Gestapo is king in
America, old boy.

Watson: There's no denying it, Holmes. What we saw on the
videotape with the Rodney King beating is running rampant in every
town across America.

Holmes: Well, it's too late to start sensitizing the police
_force_ in America. They must sanitize it; shrink it down to size
(ego, that is). The police officers in America have gotten 'too-
big-for-their-own-britches,' dear Watson. They must begin now to
shrink down the police power to the people themselves and even
disarm the police _force_ as we do here in England.

Watson: Wasn't that the reason America split from the colonies,
Holmes, to police themselves and live free to sleep and eat
wherever and however they wanted to?

Holmes: Yes, and a good example of what the police should do in
America is being done in Miami, Florida, right now. They have
marked off safe areas for the homeless to sleep and keep their
belongings from theft, all under the protection of the police,
_not_ the destruction and beatings we have been reading about.

Watson: Well, all I can say, Holmes, is that it should be done
now, before American troops come back from Somalia and find
themselves in a Home War.

[Dialogue written by Mary Uebelgunne of  North Carolina.]


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6. THE TWO FACES OF "WHITE COLLAR CRIME"

By Jan Lightfoot

FAIRFIELD, Maine -- White-collar crime is a non-violent crime. To
skim off funds not belonging to you is a white-collar crime. It's
a crime achieved by the pen, rather than the force of a gun or
other crude methods. White-collar crime is usually associated with
the class of upper incomes. They have access to other people's
finances. But even the poor can have circumstances that force them
to commit white-collar crimes.

The material for this article is based on interviews with those
near the top of the poverty level. They are still uncaught for any
criminal activity. For the most part, the people interviewed are
honest people who for lack of funds must resort to breaking
specific laws in order to survive.

The poor seldom steal for expensive cars, swimming pools in the
backyard or extravagant food. They steal just to have clunkers, to
keep clean, to eat and have a roof overhead.

Any person who can afford a checking account can be a white-collar
criminal. When someone is aware they lack funds to cover a check,
yet writes that check, they commit a non-violent white-collar
crime. Of course, when an upper-class person draws from non-
existent funds, they are merely "writing themselves a loan."

Arbitrary rules and laws make the same activity not only a crime
in one instance, but also more costly to the poor. Bank rules
allow people of higher income's to write checks, which aren't
covered by funds, without becoming criminals. The same activity by
a poor person is called "negotiating a worthless instrument." It
is a crime.

Those of greater incomes have a feature of banking called
"overdraft protection." They receive an automatic loan that
protects them from ever bouncing a check. The poor person must pay
exorbitant overdraft fees. Sometimes as high as $60 for each
check.

The law books protect against discrimination on grounds of lack of
income, yet banks may require an arbitrary minimum income limit
before issuing a credit card. This requires a poor person to lie
and commit fraud to obtain credit or to challenge the
constitutionality of such a requirement in courts for countless
years. So in practice, those lacking funds are sometimes
illegally, but effectively, discriminated against, by the
application of two sets of standards.


PART II

Some poor people are guilty of crimes of forgery or fraud. This is
done only in order to survive. But some states have laws which
subsidize entire industries. The insurance industry is one such
upper-class welfare industry. It is these laws that often create
the need for the poor to commit fraud. For example, many states
require all automobiles to be insured.

Maine now requires a certificate as "proof of insurance" before
registering any vehicle. Some of those without enough funds have
acquired fake forms. Others utilize copy machines to duplicate the
required certificate. Many just do without the basics (like food
and medicine) in order to be able to drive to work.

When the federal Clean Air law goes into effect, such forgery of
certificates might also follow.

Before Maine altered the mandatory insurance law, it was estimated
that 90,000 Mainers avoided purchasing insurance. There are an
estimated 200,000 people living under the poverty level. Common
sense tells us the rich insure their cars. But half of the poor
could not afford to comply with the insurance laws.

Legal assistance agencies are understaffed. They are also busy on
housing and food issues; they lack the resources to fight on
automobile issues, even though the rural poor need cars to get
groceries.

Most states require yearly inspection of cars. This is to protect
the public safety. When a poor person's car needs $300 of work
done in order to pass the inspection, they might have to buy
inspection stickers from shops which sell stickers for $20 to $35.
This is fraud, yet it is often survival.

The poor must choose between going hungry or without medicine or
committing fraud on a government which designs laws against those
without financial means. It is white-collar crime because the pen
and not a gun is used, but if caught, the punishment is harsher
than the upper-income white-collar criminal, who steals not to
eat, but to eat in style.


PART III

Police are less likely to take seriously complaints filed by
women, the poor and people of color. Citizenship rights require
that a citizen injured by illegal conduct has a right to bring
criminal charges. The police have a duty to arrest or summon the
culprit.

When battered women seek to press charges, police treat them as if
the women, themselves are to blame. Their rights are treated as if
they are non-existent. Police refuse to press the assault charges.
Law enforcement officials consider such acts domestic rather than
criminal in nature.

Cops also hate the paperwork which comes with a complaint. Some
people of meager means who are victims of theft have been told by
police that the theft is a "civil matter". This blatant refusal by
the police to do their duty is in itself illegal. It is an act of
oppression.

Some states recognize that it is criminal when officials
misrepresent the law or fail to carry out their duty. Those states
have laws against that conduct. Maine's laws call such misconduct
"official oppression."

If police are reluctant to take actions against ordinary assault
and thief by others, they certainly will refuse to serve a summons
on a city official or a fellow officer. In such cases civil rights
action must be applied. It is wise to have a witness who will
testify if the officer refuses to do his job.

Legal action can be brought without a lawyer if you cannot afford
one. If enough folks assert their rights, the cops will stop
worrying about the paperwork. They might be more concerned with
the work involved with citizens fighting for their rights to press
charges.

There are some places and a few lawyers around that help you
educate yourself enough to bring legal action. One place which
assist with self education is Hospitality House Inc., P.O. Box 62,
Hinckley, Maine 04944 or call 1-800-438-3890. Hospitality House
Inc. deals with homelessness and we have recognized that unequal
justice is a root cause of homelessness.


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7. POEM I

I DON'T CRY ALONE ANYMORE

By Diane Johnson

I don't cry alone anymore
I won't cry alone anymore
I am not alone anymore because I couldn't feed my kids today
I am not alone because I don't have a place to stay
What do I say, to the people who made the world this way
I don't cry alone anymore
I won't cry anymore
I might not be able to pay my utility bills on time
But damned I won't let you make me feel that's a crime
You rob from us and steal and kill
and do it all at will
But that's all right, because we are learning how to fight
What do I say to the people who made the world this way
I don't cry alone anymore
I won't cry alone anymore
You have done us oh so wrong, for so damn long
But today we are 75 million strong, and it won't be much longer
before you realize that we are strong
What do I say to the people who made the world this way
I don't cry alone anymore
I won't cry alone anymore
So when you think that I am out and down
You better learn how to look around
Because 75 million of us are going to knock you down.
What do we say to the people who made the world this way
We don't cry alone anymore
We won't cry alone anymore.


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8. POEM II

FREE FROM THE WELFARE CUTS

By Debbie Weitzman
Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Philadelphia

Will we be free? When will it be?
Free from the welfare cuts
Free from welfare trying to change and rearrange our lives
Free of the streets we may roam
Free of the box we call home
Free of no heat we might seek
Free of no meat we don't eat.
Free of no bread we don't have.
If you're on welfare you have to wait
For a drink of water you don't rate
Until you're rich with china plates.


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9. DEADLY FORCE: BARRICADING OUR STREETS, (AND OUR RIGHTS)

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"Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope
of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you,
the front line  fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send
us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for
support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information
relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's
Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486-
3551.
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POLICE STATE TACTICS NOT REALLY AIMED AGAINST DRUGS

By Anthony D. Prince

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts -- It wasn't until somebody shot at a cop
here on Springfield Street that the barricades went up and the
police started using "the drug war" as an excuse to tag every car
and driver in a four-block area.

It is a proven fact that the majority of dope dealing goes on in
the wealthy neighborhoods, not in places like Lawrence. But you
won't find the barricades and cops crawling all over the wide
streets and manicured lawns of the rich and famous. You only find
police-state tactics in places like Lawrence, an old mill town
where everybody is out of work and hungry and the cops work
overtime and look nervous.

In Lawrence, the police seal off the streets, write down the
license number of every car that comes into the Springfield Street
neighborhood and mail you a threatening letter if you drive in.
Maybe the money going down the drain to pay for this operation
could be better used providing jobs.

"This is a trend you are going to see more and more," says Gerald
Arenberg, executive director of the National Association of Chiefs
of Police. But he hasn't said anything about the involvement of
the _cops themselves_ in drug-dealing scandals in Cleveland,
Chicago, New York, Oakland and other places. He hasn't said
anything about the citizens whose doors have been smashed in and
"mistakenly" killed in "botched" drug raids. He hasn't said
anything about the fatal beating of Detroit's Malice Green, an
unemployed worker suspected of possessing crack cocaine. When the
cops were through smashing in Green's forehead, all that spilled
out of his lifeless hands was a piece of paper.

The tactic of barricading neighborhoods has been used in Chicago,
Los Angeles, Decatur, Illinois, Berkeley, California, Miami and
Portland, Oregon. The dealers simply move across the street and
what remains are poor people imprisoned in their own homes. That's
the reality of it, the reality that Lawrence, Massachusetts will
soon know.


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10.  CALL TO FORM ORGANIZING COMMITTEES...

...TO ESTABLISH AN ORGANIZATION TO EDUCATE, ORGANIZE, AND FINALLY
LEAD THE MASSES IN THE INEVITABLE TRANSFORMATION OF OUR SOCIETY

Sisters and brothers,

The American people are under attack!

Our communities are under siege. In the cities, the rural areas
and the reservations from Selma to Watts, conditions are all the
same. Jobs are minimum wage and factories continue to close.
Unemployment benefits are a joke and welfare benefits can't feed
our children or pay our rent.

Some of us are forced to live in the streets like animals. Our
communities are flooded with drugs and alcohol. Our children have
no future. The police arrest, beat and kill us. The politicians
and their political parties don't represent us. They are tied by a
thousand threads to the real estate developers, the banks, the
rich, the powerful and the rest of the capitalist class.

A system that cannot feed, clothe and house its people does not
deserve to continue to exist. We can and must organize to replace
it.

How?

By preparing the people to take this country from the exploiters
and run it in our interest. This calls for a national organization
that will:

* Root itself among the oppressed, the exploited, the homeless and
the hungry of all colors and nationalities.

* Develop a national long-range vision, strategy and plan for
victory.

* Educate the people on the situation we face, who the enemy is
and how to fight.

* Coordinate the varied scattered fights so that we can have an
impact.

* Build a structure that is in line with our local and national
needs.

* Develop the tools necessary to win: publications, schools,
cadre, etc.

This organization would be made up of the leaders of our scattered
fights; those who want to develop a national analysis, strategy
and resources; those unwilling to compromise with a system of
exploitation, hunger and misery; those who want to win.

Having discussed the Open Letter written by Marian Kramer and
General Baker, we, the undersigned, call upon all who understand
this need to join us and form Organizing Committees to establish
an organization of revolutionaries. In the spirit of Nat Turner,
John Brown, Sojourner Truth, Joaquin Murrietta, Chief Crazy Horse,
Lucy Parsons, Albert Parsons, Malcolm X and others too numerous to
mention, we make this call.

<Signed>

Abdul Alkalimat

Nacho Gonzalez

Ethel Long-Scott

John Slaughter

Leona Smith


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11. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to
the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed,
clothe and house its people ought to be changed. To that end, this
paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions
struggling for survival. It strives to educate those millions on
the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them
together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to
achieve it.

Join us!

Editor: Laura Garcia
Publisher: Lenny Brody


To help support the production and distribution of the PEOPLE'S
TRIBUNE, please send donations, letters, articles, photos,
graphics and requests for information, subscriptions and bundles
of papers to:

PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
P.O. Box 3524
Chicago, IL 60654

Respond via e-mail to [e-mail]

Reach us by phone:

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